LINCOLN, UK, January 10, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Senior bishop of the UK Anglican church has created a liturgy to acknowledge same-sex and unmarried cohabitating couples, according to a Sunday Times report.
John Saxbee, Bishop of Lincoln, commissioned the first official Church of England service recognizing same-sex and cohabitating couples. The new service, as claimed by Saxbee, is simply to acknowledge friendship, and is not to be misinterpreted as same-sex marriages, and is consistent with current Anglican guidelines, he said.
“Who’s kidding who?” chairman of the Conservative group Reform, David Banting, said. “Would liturgy for this sort of relationship have come forward for friendship’s sake were it not for the pressure from the gay lobby”. Reform represents a large group of evangelical Anglicans.
The Sunday Times reports that, of four books used as a resource for planning the services, three were gay prayer books.
The Sunday Times also pointed out that Saxbee publicly backed a vicar in his diocese who was blessing same-sex unions two years ago. “I have indicated I would not stand in the way so long as he abides by my condition that they must not be made to look like marriages”, Saxbee said then. tv